


pothole

by bonestilts (orphan_account)



Series: the loco-motion [4]
Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018) Actor RPF
Genre: I apologise, M/M, Short Story, do what you want with it, ive honestly no clue what this is it just came out of me, kaksjsh, oppressed homosexuality, pacific era, seemingly one sided attracted, there’s history to their story that left for the readers perception of their relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-11-01 06:06:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17861759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/bonestilts
Summary: It was unfair, Joe idolised him with a naked abandon.





	pothole

**Author's Note:**

> gUysss im sorry for stalling on the multichapter fic. but sweetillusion started writing one and its heaven, please go read theirs asap. so after days of procrastination and running dry on words, i just opened a word document and started to write. this is what came out, its pretty bland. but its content. so take it!

The car breaks down on the way to the hostel. A patched-up Honda that Joe rented on behalf of the other men; they were planning to drive around Queensland with it. Joe wasn’t so sure about that plan anymore, not with its wheel engulfed by tea coloured water in a scooped pothole.

Rami doesn’t get up from his seat when the driver’s door closes and Joe makes his way to the front of the car. He’s mindful of the outstretched plant leaves by his hip, careful not to get their water droplets soaked into his costume – he’d forgotten to get changed after shooting.

They were both in their clothes and must look ridiculous to any passerby. Two war marines from the 40’s, cloaked in mud and faux earth shrapnel. Hanks would be a bastard to excuse to tomorrow.

“Did you hear something break?” Rami calls, head out the window.

He’d definitely heard something snap when the vehicle halted to a stop. Joe bent down to survey the bonnet. But it felt weird to respond, especially with no imitated accent to accompany his words. “Think so. Didn’t you?”

There was no reply. Joe supposed Rami shrugged, or pulled a face, but his eyes were following his fingertips; tracing the lip of the hood, ready to crack it open and take a peek inside the intricate machine.

He looks down into the motherboard, grazed over the once churning belts and cogs. Joe’s absolutely clueless.

They are on their way to pick up the gang; James, Ash, Martin and Keith. All co-stars and all thirsty for a pint at the pub each night. Only their hostel was miles away from any good spots, and the Australian owners had advised them to stick to a particular street.

 _“Spend ya nights there, that’s where all the rowdy’uns go.”_ The woman had said, flashing James a toothy grin with her dyed orange bangs causing her eyes to flutter. He’d taken the brochure from her wrinkled hand with a stiff “thanks” and vowed to the others in private that he wasn’t going to visit reception ever again.

It’d been a misunderstanding, Joe recognises, James had taken her movements inappropriately, when she was only trying to be helpful to the foreigners. And that wasn’t the only time there had been a misunderstanding, he and Rami were on shaky ground too.

“Are we getting out of here any time soon?”

His voice shocked Joe. “Not unless we call a tow.”

“Can’t you fix it?”

“I don’t know how.” He said.

Joe looked up in time to see Rami exit through the passenger door. He walked closer, his military boot scuffed Joe’s bent knee, he was balancing in a squat, hovering above the wet tar road. The tap almost sent him tumbling backwards. Rami didn’t apologise, Joe didn’t bring it up.

“What’s the matter? Didn’t your dad ever teach you how to work a car?”

Joe raised his chin into the brightness of the sky, the sun was hidden by light grey clouds, it made everything below the skyline look pale and ill. Even Rami’s skin.

“No, I spent the majority of my childhood in set trailers.”  

He couldn’t see Rami’s hard face through his squinting, the reflection of light off the ground blurred his facial features. But Joe could picture it. Skeptical lines of resignation, the familiar dullness of exhaustion in his eyes. The deep-seated pain that escaped with every word that left his tongue. Joe knew of it all, Rami had given him first class seats to his own private show; observe how sick I am of you. That was the game now.

Rami hummed, it wasn’t anything unkind, though it wasn’t nice either. It was neglectful. That’s all he could come up with.

Joe wanted to stand up, to pound his fist against Rami’s chest and demand him to fight back, to push at him, to pick on him, to bring it up, to _say_ something about his behavior. Because he knew, that’s why he’d shifted their routine. Joe wanted to get it over and done with.

“How about you try?” He suggested, trying his hardest not to let the venom he felt clogging his throat seep into his tone.

“I wouldn’t know anything either. My parents raised me believing I was going to be a lawyer.”

 _Then shut up about it._ Joe wanted to say. Instead, he hummed.

It’d been weeks since production began and they’d started off on the right foot. Hit it off immediately, and it was a relief for Joe, who had been stressing about his relationship with Rami since he got the final casting call. It escalated from there, naturally at first, but then obsessively. Joe became infatuated with this man, completely overtaken by his beauty and charisma – and that didn’t work out for the growing story of _The Pacific._

“You going to call them, or should I?” Rami asked with his upper body leaning into the window, he was reaching for his phone.

And perhaps it was only Joe’s imagination, the way Rami sounded. The lack of interest in his sentences, the cold affection in his fair eyes, the nonexistent admiration. It was unfair, Joe idolised him with a naked abandon. He was endlessly intrigued by this person and he was trying day after day to become immune to receiving nothing back – because that was his reality at this point, months in and there hadn’t been any extreme reciprocation.

Friends? Barely, now that Rami understood Joe.

“I will. You were saying only yesterday that you didn’t have much credit left.”

Complaining, he’d been yapping on and on at the dinner table, fork swinging between meals as he spoke about his phone fees. If Joe was any of the other men, he’d have rolled his eyes and poked fun at him. But he didn’t, he listened intently and attempted to side with him. He should have known it’d made Rami uncomfortable, again.

“Sure.”

Joe stood from his crouch and retrieved his phone from his back pocket. His fingers almost slipped on the glass case, and he cringed at the thought of smashing it right here. He saw Rami watching him in his peripheral vision. _Now who’s interested, asshole?_

He decided to open his mouth before the service picked up. “What’s your problem with me then, huh?”

Rami’s eyebrows creased. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb.”

“I’ve nothing against you, Joe. Don’t _play_ dramatic.”

He could have laughed, but it would have come out as a snicker. Evil and thick on his tongue. And he didn’t want that, it would give him away, the raw emotion waiting at the very base of his throat, right where it conjoined with his collarbones. He was hurt by the one he supposedly loved. Accidental, like a tire in mud, spinning out of control, trying desperately to release itself from its own trap. It saw what was ahead, it knew the consequences, it’s happened before, it’s reoccurring and yet it went full steam ahead. Now forever unable to escape until assisted.

“Ever since– why have you been acting so stiffly around me?” He asked, eyes almost closed against the light. It wasn’t bad anymore but Joe needed an excuse to avoid seeing Rami’s delicate face clearly. He was still on hold.

There was a heavy sigh. “I’m not acting any differently. It’s just the show.”

“Don’t bullshit me, not now. I know it’s not the show.” _Everything will be better if you just said it, just, do me a favour and say it. It’ll help us both, trust me._

“Then why ask a question you already know the answer to?”

 _You’re a dick. I can’t help but adore it._ “Just fucking tell me, stop putting it off. It’ll go away much faster if you just admit it.” The absurd cartoon music stopped playing. Rami was fiddling with his own palms, picking at the calloused skin. He was more nervous that Joe, that made him feel strung with a sort of pride.

“Spell it out for me.”

“Don’t be childish.” His voice was drone-like, plain and drilling.

“You want me to blatantly say to your face that I know you're in love me?”

Joe heard a crackle on the other end.

“Yes. Hello.” He stared directly into Rami’s watery eyes. “I’d like to order a tow.”

 *   *   *

It took an hour before the man came to take them and the car away. During that time Joe and Rami sat in silence, Rami in the passenger seat and Joe on the hood of the car. They didn’t speak about their previous conversation, it was left hanging in the tense air.

They looked out across the scrub, the complete nothingness surrounding them. Some of the red dirt was still wet from the morning shower, the day hadn’t yet reached a boiling point, barely 20 degrees, but Joe felt feverish in his uniform. They didn’t utter a word to each other until he arrived.

He was wearing tradie clothes, a florescent yellow vest and long pants. Tanned up until where his sleeves began. He invited them both into his truck smoothly while he clipped the Honda.

Rami sat in the middle, squished between the stick shift and Joe’s window seat. The man turned the radio up loudly as they began driving again. They listened to _Men At Work_. Joe felt mesmerised by the movement of his seat, the way the ride seemed a lot bumpier now that he was in a larger vehicle. Joe heard the drumming of the road in his eardrums, he liked how it blocked out Rami’s breathing, a presence he felt too warmly by his left side.

The men announced that they’d be there in roughly ten minutes. They’d been so close.

Joe kept his eyes trained on the blur of dry vegetation outside, the mix of orange hues in the distance like watercolour on thin paper. He focused on drained sky and didn’t dare let himself relate the colour to Rami’s irises, he didn’t look over at the man beside him to check if he was correct.

The music wasn’t loud enough.

Then there was a hand on his wrist and his attention snapped to the contact as if he’d been slapped across the face.

He turns his chin and releases the breath caught behind his tongue. Rami looks at Joe. They both know that if Rami takes his hand away this will all be lost, this strange fluidity. Joe knows what will be after this; back to the hard lines of Rami’s scowling face, his faux empathy and naked fingers prodding his ribs while cameras roll.

Rami leans in, through the sliver of space between them, and rests his head against Joe’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry.” He says.

Joe feels the heat of Rami’s forehead, it bleeds through the dirtied material of his shirt and into his skin. It’s rising up, becoming molten. It’s repression. Joe fears that he may not be able to soothe himself out once this is all over, he may not be able to forgive him.

“Are you?” He croaks. He can smell the sweat from his overgrown hair, musky and taxing.

“Sure.”

There it is again; the urge to laugh. Though this time not wickedly, not out of spite or anger. This time his chest feels bubbly, his fingers light and airy. Rami doesn’t shift away and neither of them notice the driver’s glances.

Joe wishes it would last.

**Author's Note:**

> i remember when i was one of two works in this tag, im so proud of everyone thats contributed to this pairing. we're creating our own little world and im very grateful it. everyone's works are brilliant!
> 
> also.... i hope none of you have noticed that IM THE FUCKING WORST with tenses. i keep time jumping back and forth and im trying very hard to fix my horrible habit, but it takes years to edit through an entire piece once ive accidentally swapped tenses again. so for the future, i will work towards fixing it, but for now i think you guys are just going to have to sit through it :( sorry!
> 
> :) comments are much appreciated


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